rmcjacket23

signing daryl and steve buys brown bynes brown mellette and other young guys we will draft or sign time to learn from 2 solid vets before they retire. hope the young guys take advantage and soak up all the info they can

One thing is for sure... I'd expect to see a whole lot less of Jacoby and Marlon Brown on offense this season. And I don't see Mellette being more than a gameday inactive and/or practice squad guy for most of the season.

you guys are nuts, Mack is in his prime and could be long term solution, instead of hoping and praying 33 year old players will get it done year after year....

Better than hoping and praying that a guy who isn't even a FA somehow decides to take less money to come play for your team.

I'd rather take my chances with another rookie. At least that's realistic.

If there's anybody who is hoping and praying here, its the Alex Mack huggers.

not wasting my time, it is what it will be, but knowing our priority is the O-Line, and knowing their is a top center out there, and knowing Oz has contacted his agent makes it a possibility, and that is better then no shot at all....

If you think so, then you believe that. It doesn't seem like Ozzie does though. Have you noticed you haven't heard a word about our interest in him since we signed Monroe? Why do you think that is.

For the last time... if you want to keep praying, keep praying. If you want to keep pretending like "its possible", then do that. I'm more of a realistic guy myself. And I'm not the one who will be disappointed when Mack is a Brown in September. That's a YOU problem, not a Ravens problem.

I'd rather find another Matt Birk, whom we paid under $1 million when we won the Super Bowl, than Mack who will demand $9+ million. Ozzie finds gems like that. You know the motto: right player, right price.

Agreed. We don't need an Alex Mack, because the difference between him and the 10th or 12th best center in the league isn't worth the $5m a year or more price difference between them.

Matt Birk wasn't a top tier center when he played for us, and we don't need one that is either. We just need somebody who is better.

I don't understand why so many fans think that the only way to replace somebody who is poor at their position is by spending a bunch of money on the absolute best guy.

This logic makes no sense to me.

Oz very rarely waste his time on players we have no chance of going after, in fact his history has always been to slow play it in FA, and not really talk to anyone until the end of the first week, beginning of of the second week, for him to make that call as soon as FA opened is a very telling sign, we might not land him but it won't be from lack of effort on his part..

It doesn't matter how much effort he puts in. He's not going to be a Raven.

You can accept this, or continue spending your summer in prayer. Either way you are wasting your time.

we don't need anyone, but we sure as heck want players of Mack's caliber, and if we landed him, that would be one of Oz's best deals...Instant stability for our interior line...

If... stop living your life revolving around ifs.

Try thinking more realistic. This isn't Madden.

Great signing but I still think the Ravens should add a young WR. I think the biggest 2 steals of FA could be Danario Alexander (He's 25 has great raw ability and is fast and big bodied) or Brandon Lloyd (This guy is clearly past his prime but his last season with the Pats two years ago was still decent enough to be on an NFL team. Both of these guy would most likely sign low cap costing deals especially Danario.

Danario very likely may never play in the NFL again. He's had two major surgeries on the same knee in the last year, and due to an infection, is highly unlikely to be able to play in 2014. His career itself is in serious doubt.

We also have no need for Brandon Lloyd. He's the 4th or 5th WR on this team at best. He offers no upside to what we are trying to do.

true on the transition tag, but Oz wouldn't contact his agent ,if he felt he had no chance of making a play for him...

Yes, he would. He or somebody that works for him likely contacts the agent of every single FA on the market.

Doesn't mean anything.

And...even if we don't get Mack, we better get someone to play center, but if Mack is on the market, you don't look the other way, which we haven;t as Oz has already been in contact with his agent....

As has every other GM of every other team.

I have no doubt we were in contact with Revis' agent too, but that doesn't mean we had a realistic shot of acquiring him.

We very well may get somebody else to play center, but its not going to be Alex Mack. We don't need him.

you need to do the math, they aren't going to spend their 30 mil in cap space this year on him, it's about a long term deal that he wants....and if they wanted him that bad, they would have offered him that so-called 10 mil per year for 4 to 5 years...

They already spent $10m on him... the $30m in cap space they have already includes his $10m guaranteed salary for 2014. So even if the Ravens offered him $15m for this season (which nobody will), then it only costs the Browns $5m more to keep him, and they would STILL have $25m in cap space.

I don't know how many more ways I have to spell out that he's not going to be a Raven. If you want to continue living the fantasy, be my guest. But reality will set in eventually.

WHAT??? Browns get a first rounder if a franchise player is signed away......

Except he's not a franchise player... he's a transition player. There is a difference.

the 120 mil is not myth when next year his cap number is 25 mil, so your myth is a reality, and because it was spread out that way, his cap number was low, and yes, going into FA last year, we struggled to have 5 mil to spend after the tenders...

Are you familiar with the concept of guaranteed money? Do you understand what that means? It means that every dime of a contract that is non-guaranteed is written in pencil. Therefore, at any given time that a team chooses, they can simply erase it.

The REAL number of money that Flacco is guaranteed is $52m. That would be less than half of the phantom $120m that people pretend like is real. He won't be saying anywhere near $100m on his current contract.

And the REAL cap number for Joe Flacco in 2015 is $14.55m... a far cry from the $25m phantom number that you literally just made up.

The Browns are going through their cap stash, with all the signings they have done, and center is not a high priced position that would break a team, so if we throw a contract big enough where the Browns feel they would rather have the draft pick, then it's very possible, that is why you don't see teams going after franchised players because of what they have to give up...so yep, very doable..

1. The Browns get no draft pick competition by not matching any offer, so that logic doesn't work.

2. The Browns have already acknowledged that they are willing to pay Mack over $10m this season to be a member of their team. How do we know this? Because its the cost of the transition tag that they applied to him. Therefore, realistically, the minimum amount of guaranteed compensation that the Ravens would have to give Mack to get him to even discuss an agreement would be $10m. That alone is a gigantic amount of guaranteed compensation to give to any center, regardless of how good they are.

3. The Browns have over $35m in cap space currently. The Ravens have about $15m at most.

So again, and again, just provide example. Stop saying "well there are ways", when you've yet to provide a way.

I'm simply baffled by how many people are obsessed with this. The picture has been painted pretty clear for you. I don't understand what you guys don't understand.

ask yourself how we signed flacco to 100 mil deal when we had like 5 mil in cap space last year, there are allot of ways to make contracts big enough for teams to no match or want to match....

And by the way... we didn't sign Flacco to a $100m deal, and we had more than $5m in a cap space.

The $120m figure that a lot of the kid fans like to throw around is a myth.

ask yourself how we signed flacco to 100 mil deal when we had like 5 mil in cap space last year, there are allot of ways to make contracts big enough for teams to no match or want to match....

OK, and? We were competing against nobody to sign Flacco.

But be detailed... how do you explain creating a contract that a team with less cap space would be able to afford than a team with a much larger amount of cap space?

If there are many ways... then surely you wouldn't have an issue providing an example of one way. And be sure to provide a way that the Ravens can afford it but the Browns can't.

we are not getting mack and guess what we dont need him we need a R.T and Defense lineman safty and linebacker some in draft and some F.A

What kind of linebacker do we need exactly?

Mack is still in the picture,, signing bonus money, guaranteed money that can be paid in the first 3 years of a contract, Centers are not 12 mil a year positions, so long term deals which what he wants is still very doable...And to stay in the AFCN would be another plus in making a solid play for him...

Ask yourself this... what kind of contract could we sign Mack to that would make it difficult for the Browns to match?

The next person that comes up with one is the first person to come up with one.

We don't need Mack. We just need an upgrade on Gino. Stop shooting for the moon. Its time to shift your fan focus to something reasonable.

I'd consider Peyton Manning and Alex Mack about equally as likely to be Ravens at this time.

How'd you work that out, I hate the other AFC North teams as everyone else but Alex Mack is one of the best centres in the league and that's probably our weakest spot on offence.  The Franchise would be MUCH better if he was here.

Sure... if you're running a franchise with monopoly money and have no concept of what it costs to bring somebody here.

Just more typical fan overreaction. Got a bad center? Throw a ton of money at the best one and hope it sticks.

That's why Ozzie is Ozzie and fans are fans.

I think Ozzie should start looking at some Safeties....we need one. Or possibly a RT. Other than that, we should be about done in free agency.

I think the draft is and should be the plan for both of those spots.

Never bought into the "we are going to go after Alex Mack" hype train. Its a classic fan overreaction. We had a pretty bad center last season. So what do fans want? Us to go after the best center. While its a classic thought concept, its also an irrational one. We don't need the best center in the league, and we don't need to pay top dollar for him. We just need a better center. If we had the 15th best center in the league (which is about what we had when we had Birk), I guarantee no Ravens fan would even be discussing Alex Mack or any other center for that matter.

It must be frustrating for Oher. He seems to have a much higher opinion of his performance and value than the FO, pundits, and fans have of it.

Gets far more credit for the name on his jersey and the movie made about him than his on-field production deserves.

He will find a very soft market in FA.

Lets not get a 34 year old wideout with 2 year left. Lets get Brandin Cooks via draft like Mel Kiper Jr said. The to are the same size but cooks has years ahead of him. We all dont want Dallas Clarke again.

Whats stopping us from getting both?

"JamesA119 Graham is not worth the contract he is getting anyway. he was a 3rd corner, not irreplaceable. You can't pay everybody. We also have a GM named Newsome. Hes got this." {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Well that's the problem. I like Ozzie, but there appears to be this blind faith in his decisions. What happened with Spears, and Huff in free agency last year? Cody, Kindle, Dickson etc., in the draft? How about always losing players in their prime? - Ellerbe, Redding, Jarret Johnson etc., I think all these years we got away with it because we had the "equalizer" Ray Lewis. The Ravens are not alone in this regard. The Patriots seem to get away with it too because of their equalizer - Tom Brady.

Am I the only one that finds it amusing that he references Ellerbe, Redding and Johnson as three play we let go in their "prime", yet in the few seasons since they've been gone, they haven't performed nearly at the level they did when they were with us?

I mean did you actually look and see what guys like Ellerbe, Kruger and JJ have done since they left this team?

I mean lets look at the "facts" shall we...

JJ: apparently let go in his "prime", where he had at least 50 tackles for us from 07 through 2011, yet in two years for SD, he's had 40 or less and recently agreed to take a paycut. Sounds like we let him go at his peak to me, not prime.

Ellerbe: after a grand total of one quality season in Baltimore, he had virtually the same amount of tackles with less sacks in Miami, while making nearly $7m a season. And the Dolphins feel so great about his skills that they are moving him from MLB to weakside LB, which is essentially a nice way of saying "you're not good enough to lead the LB core". Sounds more like peak than prime to me.

Kruger: After 14 sacks in two seasons as a viable player on this team, he took $8m to go get 4.5 sacks as the top pass rusher on a bad team. Sounds more like peak than prime to me.

I'm not even sure why Cory Redding's name is on this list, because he wasn't very good for us and he hasn't been very good ever since. The guy is two years from retirement. If he's your argument, you've got to try harder.

There's people that talk about facts and there's people that provide them...

Only so much space on a football field, seems like the number 3 receiver position is already a race between jones, brown, malette, what we need is a number two and I don't think Steve smith is the answer

Correct, doesn't mean a draft pick has to play much or at all this season. But something tells me that a draft as deep and talented as this one is at the WR/TE position that Ozzie is certainly going to get somebody.

Plus, I don't think the FO really views Brown, Mellette or Jacoby as viable options long-term in this offense.

Ozzie is the best gm in pro football but everyone makes mistakes. Would rather see us get a receiver for the future instead of a stop gap for one season and then having to go thru this again next yr

Whats stopping them from doing both? Its actually what I see them doing.